Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
Not only is Valentine’s Day the day of love, but it also marks the 50th anniversary weekend of Saturday Night Live. You read that right, SNL has been on the air for 50 years. The anniversary special is set to air on Sunday February 16th 8pm on NBC and streaming on Peacock. According to Billboard, many celebrities are slated to appear during the special. Celebrities including Paul McCartney, Pedro Pascal, Kim Kardashian, Sabrina Carpenter, Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, and many more. More names may be announced before the special premieres this Sunday.
It may seem strange for the three hour special to air on a Sunday, but that is because the first episode of SNL which aired in 1975 will re-air the Saturday night before on NBC to help mark the occasion. According to Billboard, Jimmy Fallon is set to host a homecoming concert at Radio City Music Hall on Friday night to start off the weekend of SNL’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
SNL has brought laughs to TV screens for 50 years with skits, joke swaps, and many more. Some of those sketches include Celebrity Jeopardy starring Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek, Meet Your Second Wife, and many more. Guardian put together a list of the 20 best SNL sketches to commemorate the occasion as have other new outlets recently.
According to USA Today the best skit from season 50 of SNL was “What’s That Name: Election Edition.” The skit first debuted a decade ago headlined by John Mullaney and he resurrected it on November 2 for the election. The skit has John Mullaney playing a liberal who is challenged to remember the names of political figures for low amounts of money. However when asked what Senator Tim Kaine’s name is, Mullaney can not remember what his name is. The Skit has a shocking reveal of Sarah Sherman portraying “The Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, SNL got its start on October 11 1975 and has aired more than 950 episodes. It all began when the host of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” Johnny Carson wanted to have more time off during the week so he asked executives at NBC to play reruns of the show on weekdays instead of weekends instead. Herbert Schlosser, President of NBC spoke to Vice President of programming Dick Ebersol about making a show that would be live at 11:30 pm on weekends. Ebersol recruited Lorne Michaels to the cause and after three weeks, the idea to create SNL was formed. NBC gave them a budget of $134,000 but they needed $180,000 per episode. NBC did not expect the show to do well and expected a loss of revenue but they could not have been more wrong.
As SNL celebrates 50 years of comedy making, one can hope that they stay around for another 50 years if not longer. SNL has even had a movie made about the creator and how SNL came to bring us laughs and joy called “Saturday Night.” Another great way for any SNL fanatics to celebrate the occasion would be to watch the movie.
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